SHE DIDN’T HAVE TO STAY
Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding and Rory Harrison gave inconsistent accounts of that night to police
PADDY JACKSON wore an openneck white shirt and did not wear a tie. He sat in the rectangle-shaped half-glass, half-wood dock.
As the prosecution barrister, Toby Hedworth, and the police officer who led the investigation into him and his three co-defendants prepared to read into the court record two lengthy interviews the rugby player had given to police days after the alleged rape, Jackson turned around to see where his mother and father were located in the public gallery. He looked a number of times and did not turn to face the court room until his eyes met theirs.
This was the first time that Jackson had turned around searching for them at the trial – which went into its fourth week of hearing last week.
And it was only as his father took his seat alongside his mother, that the first of their son’s two lengthy police interviews were read out in court last Friday morning.
What followed was an extraordinarily detailed delineation of his version of what happened.
Jackson’s statement differed in some respects to that of teammate Rory Harrison who was also at the party, which was heard a week ago. According to Jackson, after the alleged rape victim performed oral sex on him and Stuart Olding, he returned downstairs to rejoin the party that was still going on in the living room of his five-bedroom three-storey house. He said a short time afterwards, the complaintant walked out of the house in high-heel shoes.
Rory Harrison’s police statement had been different. Harrison said he went upstairs to say goodnight to Jackson and Olding because by then everyone had left and he wanted to say goodnight ‘to the guys’.
THE PARTY
RECALLING coming home from the nightclub, Jackson said: ‘I came back in a taxi with three girls. We got to my house and then a couple of people came so there was two of my friends and another girl who I didn’t know at this point so we were just having a few drinks in the living room and listening to music and chatting.’
Describing what happened in the house soon after arriving, Paddy Jackson said: ‘One of the girls I didn’t know [the complainant] was being quite forward with me and she wasn’t talking much but she was sitting in the corner and I kept noticing that she was looking at me and from there I went upstairs and I turned round and she was following me up the stairs.’
When asked whether there had been anything between him and any of these girls at that stage, any kissing, any touching, anything Paddy Jackson said: ‘No, no, no. It just happened that I shared a taxi back with them and no, they’re really nice girls, and like we were just chatting and no kissing or touching or anything.’
When asked by the police officer about what was the intention of having the party, Paddy Jackson said: ‘Just have a good time. I wasn’t intending on having any sexual encounters but obviously if the opportunity came it would have, not opportunity, but if it happened, it would have happened. But I wasn’t going around trying to kiss the girls or anything like that. It was just for a good time really to have people back.’
Asked about where people were in his house at the party, Paddy Jackson said: ‘Living room, which is below my room, and we just played music and had a few drinks and just chatted really. I’m not sure if she was friends with the other girls or if she knew them, if they invited her or if she just met one of us or one of the guys outside while we were waiting for a taxi. So I just said hi to her. I could just always feel that she was in the corner and she was just kind of, stare... looking at me quite a lot. So it was kind of strange but just I thought maybe she was interested, she must have been interested in me. She was wearing white jeans and had sandy coloured hair.’
THE ROOM
Jackson said: ‘So we went into my room and... I only talked to her a couple of times in the living room just saying hi and introducing, and then we sat on the bed and we started Extract from Paddy Jackson’s police interviews, which were read out in court in Belfast on Friday
WARNING CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
kissing. She seemed quite... I was kissing her back. She asked me if I knew her name and I said I didn’t know. So from there she changed her tone a bit and we didn’t then, we just went downstairs.
‘We were still drinking and stuff. She came down and same again, we were just sitting and I noticed she was looking at me and a couple of times she came up and kind of touched me and a bit obviously, I think she was flirting with me and I was pretty sure something was going to happen between us.
‘So then I headed upstairs to my room and she followed me up and then from there we again, started kissing again. We just kind of picked up where we left off. It proceeded to... we both lay back on the bed.
‘I was on my back and she was on top of me and we were just kissing again and then eventually it led that she undid my trousers and basically started performing oral, eh, put my penis in her mouth for a while and still some more kissing and stuff and you know she was touching me and I was touching her.’
STUART OLDING
Jackson said: ‘So basically my trousers were all the way off and then she, well it proceeded to happen and then the door opened and my friend Stuart who was up there came in. He didn’t know we were up there.
‘He just walked in to the room and he saw what was happening with me and then he came in as well and she stopped performing oral sex on me and then started on him.’
Later asked about if his underpants came off at the same time, Jackson said: ‘Yes they came down as well. It sounds so weird saying it. She has my penis in her mouth and is performing oral sex... that went on for a good bit... then the door I think... the door was already open or just half open and then... Stuart came upstairs and he looked in and I don’t think he knew we were up there. I think he was just – I don’t know what he was doing. He was walking around the house and maybe seeing where I was maybe... and came in and saw that she was... performing oral sex. And then, but she couldn’t see him. But
then I kind of waved at him and smiled and then... he came in and then he sat on the end of the bed and I think she saw him and she started performing oral sex on him... and then I was just kind of watching and then I think from there I start... I maybe took her, pulled her trousers down and while she was performing oral sex on him I was using my fingers on her downstairs region.’
The officer asked: ‘So Stuart comes into the room and the girl is performing oral sex on you and you wave at Stuart?’
Paddy Jackson said: ‘He just sat down I think on the end of the bed and then basically just swapped over and then she was performing oral on him and then, it’s then I started touching her downstairs region and from there I think that just went on for a little bit... and then I... I think we probably took our clothes off. I think me and her had our tops off I think… and then I don’t think he was there for too long and then he left. And then me and her were still kind of, we just continued where we left off.’
The police officer asked: ‘How did the girl seem about performing oral sex on Stuart?’
Paddy Jackson: ‘Well she did it so it wasn’t forced on her at all. Or it just happened, it wasn’t like... I presume because she did it she wanted to do it.’
HER REACTION
The police officer: ‘Did she say if it was hurting her?’
Jackson said: ‘I don’t remember, I would have stopped. I don’t understand why she wouldn’t leave if she didn’t want to be there. She didn’t have to stay, she could have left but she didn’t. I didn’t force myself on her. I was touching her vagina.’ The officer: ‘How did she seem?’ Jackson: ‘Fine. I didn’t force myself on her so I presumed... it was happening and she wanted it to happen. She didn’t have to stay, she could have left if she wanted but she didn’t.’
DRINK TAKEN
When questioned, he said the four defendants had started their night out with drinks at Blane McIlroy’s house and then they went to Cutters Wharf and from there onto Ollie’s.
Jackson said: ‘I would have had a few drinks so a bit tipsy but I wouldn’t say I was drunk and then once I got to Ollie’s we had a bit more so I would have ended up being a bit drunk.’ Later he adds: ‘I was drunk but I was having a good time, I wasn’t like falling around the place or anything. I was on the same level as everyone.’
SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS
Jackson said: ‘I think they just presumed they were going to stay because we came back to the house so we were having a night out and they were... they don’t have their own places so they stay with me.’ When asked where they would normally stay, Jackson said: ‘I’ve got a big super-king. They either share a bed with me or sleep on the, there’s an L-shaped sofa in the upstairs living room... spare bed on the top floor so it’s just where they crash really.’
CONSENT
The police officer asked: ‘How did you know that she was consenting to all of this?’
Jackson said: ‘I think because she, well, she initiated the… at the start... well she, me and her were kissing to begin with... and then when Stuart came in like, she, she just did it, I didn’t know, I didn’t tell her to do it or tell Stuart to get her to do it. Like it just happened. So I presume she wanted to.’
The police officer asked: ‘And how did she seem whenever all of this was going on? Did she seem okay with it or did she seem distressed or upset in any way?’
Jackson said: ‘No... I don’t think. She asked me if I had a condom and I didn’t so... she maybe wanted to have sex but we didn’t because I didn’t have a condom.’
INTERCOURSE?
When he was asked whether any intercourse had taken place, Jackson said: ‘No.’
The officer said: ‘And so you are saying no intercourse at all?’ Paddy Jackson said: ‘No.’ The officer asked: ‘What about Stuart?’
Paddy Jackson said: ‘No, no.’
SHE LEAVES
Speaking about what happened after the sexual contact happened, Jackson said: ‘So me and Stuart were obviously with her and once we finished I went back down to the party. I was talking with friends and stuff and then I think she just left from there and I presume she got a taxi home.
‘I saw her leaving... going out the door and then that was it. It was pretty early in the morning so after that I just went to bed.’
The police officer asked: ‘And where were you whenever you saw her leaving?’
Jackson said: ‘So, in the living room, and the hallway just goes straight to the front hall. So I just saw her and ’cause you can... our walk-in’s tiled so I could hear her high heels. And then I just poked, just looked out, and she was leaving, going out the door.’
The officer said: ‘And whenever you see her leaving how did she appear at that stage?’
Paddy Jackson: ‘I saw the back of her... just looked like she was going home.’
The officer said: ‘Was she walking or running?’
Jackson said: ‘She was walking out I think. I didn’t talk to her at all or anything when she left.’
The officer asked: ‘Okay, any other conversation with you?’
Jackson said: ‘No, not that I can recall.’
The officer said: ‘And when you came back down after that who was still in the house?
Jackson: I think two, two of the girls had left and Emily was still there and then Rory... Stuart, myself and Blane. Rory didn’t stay so he went home. I think it was getting light, light outside so maybe 4 or 5am, I don’t know, I can’t really recall the time.’
THE MORNING AFTER
The police officer asked: ‘Were there any conversations about the night before?’
Jackson said: ‘Not really just kind of said that, not really, well yeah. We talked about it but just about what happened really.’